BENTON - Sierra Club has ended its effort to shut down the Prairie State Generating power plant near Marissa.
The club and Prairie State stipulated on April 16 that the club would dismiss the suit with prejudice and both sides would bear their own costs.
Prairie State provides power to about 2.5 million families mostly from Ohio to Missouri.
Each year it burns about 6.5 million tons of coal from a mine below the plant.
Sierra Club sued to shut down the plant at U.S. district court in 2023, claiming Prairie State operated without an air quality permit.
Prairie State moved to dismiss the suit, claiming state regulators approved a construction permit that allowed it to operate while it awaited approval of an air quality permit.
Sierra Club and Prairie State jointly moved to stay discovery pending a decision on the motion, and Magistrate Judge Daly granted it.
She denied the motion to dismiss the complaint last August, finding Prairie State would probably emit less pollution under a permit than it emits without a permit.
She found state and federal governments simply ignored the facility’s existence.
Three weeks later Prairie State petitioned the state pollution control board to compel the environmental protection agency to take action on its permit application.
At a meeting of the pollution control board last October an environmental protection official said approval could take two years.
In November, Prairie State moved to stay the suit pending state action.
On Dec. 5, Sierra Club moved for judgment on the pleadings, claiming Prairie State’s petition proved it operated illegally.
On that date the pollution control board found Prairie State was entitled to action at the environmental protection agency.
The board found the agency offered no explanation for its failure to act.
In January, Prairie State moved for judgment on the pleadings.
Daly set a hearing for April 7 but on April 2 Sierra Club and Prairie State moved to extend it to no sooner than April 21.
“Parties believe they have identified a pathway toward dismissing the current litigation that would not require further action from the court," they wrote.
They wrapped it up in two weeks and Daly approved their stipulation on April 17.
Megan Wachspress and Gregory Wannier of Sierra Club in Oakland, California represented the club along with Elizabeth Hubertz of Washington University.
Robert Middleton and Paul Greenwalt of Arentfox Schiff in Chicago represented Prairie State.